“Bringing Gifts”

by Pastor Wade

“On entering the house, the wise men saw the child with Mary his mother and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts…” Matthew 2:11

“So, where are you going to be drinking coffee this month?” he asked me.  We were sitting across the table from each other, enjoying soup and sandwich after one of the music events that are our joy on Wednesday noontimes in Advent.  He continued: “You always seem to be drinking coffee in different places and with different people when you write your monthly newsletter article.”  “Probably because I drink a lot of coffee,” I said.  “But I was thinking the same thing as I was sitting in the balcony today…with my cup of coffee.”
 
Yes, I am confessing that I had my cup of coffee with me as Pastor Dave and I sat in the balcony and listened to Grant and Kim and Vicki and Holly and Ginny offer their gifts of music in anticipation of Christ’s coming. (and last week to Rick and Paul and Russell offer their musical gifts.)  It was a delightful beginning to our Advent season and, I will admit, a rare treat for your pastors to sit in the balcony and worship and see the worship space as you do.  Ours is a lovely setting in which to hear the wonder of Christ’s coming proclaimed in song.  Many thanks to those who make it a lovely setting…to those who bring in the tree and hang the lights and Chrismons, to the banner committee that tends the bright hangings that bring lovely blue hues to our worship space, and to the flower committee that cares for the offerings of flowers each week and that will soon assemble a myriad of red and white poinsettias for Christmas worship.

And I thought, as I sat in the balcony with my coffee, “What a delight to see the gifts of God’s people expressed in so many ways in this season of Christ’s coming.”  Gifts of music that we may miss hearing in the rest of the year are rehearsed for this holy season and songs of joy and wonder are shared.  But it is not only gifts of music that bring delight…and not all have such gifts to bring.  It is also gifts of decoration – of individual and family gathered to string lights and greenery at the entry and throughout our gathering spaces.  It is gifts of generosity on behalf of those struggling through the season – a multitude of bright packages gathered around the Angel Tree.  It is gifts of hospitality – soup and sandwich prepared and served to those worshipping, cookies and other goodies shared with friends and neighbors where we work and play.  It is “Christmas at House,” with doors open to neighbors and friends in need of a good hot meal and warm companionship in the darkest days of winter.  It is the card of greeting, the extra visit to family or long neglected friend, the young and old caroling in the halls of the nursing home, the can of mixed nuts tied with a bow and left by the curb for the garbage collector.
 
Friends, there is a spirit of generous joy that emerges in this season – I believe – because we are oh-so-aware of the gift given in the coming of the Christ child.  It is a season of hope and of joy and of love and that somehow overflows in our lives and in the extra attention we pay to hope and joy and love in our families and in our neighborhoods.  If only…if only…such a spirit would overflow in the other seasons of our lives!j Of course it can…and it does.  For that is what it is to live daily in the wonder that is God’s love come to us in Christ…not only at Christmas but every day!

Thanking God for you and the gifts I see expressed through you,

Pastor Wade

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